Merundoi proposes town hall-style forum for contesting parties
By Stabroek staff.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The refusal of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s presidential candidate Donald Ramotar to participate in a presidential debate organized by Merundoi, has forced the organization to opt instead for a “town-hall” styled forum, for which it is again seeking participation from the four major groups contesting the elections.
Merundoi Incorporated’s Managing Director Margaret Lawrence yesterday told Stabroek News that invitations would be dispatched to the four main political parties shortly.
This news comes after the much anticipated Merundoi debate was stalled because of the status of Ramotar’s participation.
“We have decided that we will change the debate format to a “town hall format” where the parties will make their presentations and then invite questions from the floor…We are currently in the process of inviting the four main parties—the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Alliance For Change (AFC) and The United Force (TUF)—to participate and will also be sending invitations to three hundred stakeholders to be part of the questioning audience,” she said.
She added that since the Theatre Guild, the planned venue for the event, could only accommodate 300, the organization will take questions from the public by email or post, so that citizens can participate from across the country and parties can address the issues from a cross- section of possible voters countrywide. Lawrence noted that as soon Merundoi formalizes final plans, details of the event will be made known to the public.
The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry has already pulled out as a partner in holding the previously planned debate, after the PPP/C said the event was not in keeping with Ramotar’s tight campaign schedule.
PPP/C Campaign Manager Robert Persaud, who has said that Ramotar is unafraid of a debate, said recently that the party is committed to participate in a forum organized by another group.
The PPP/C, however, has not named the group or persons associated with the debate to which Persaud has alluded.
Meanwhile, the Jamaican Observer yesterday reported that although their elections was one year away, the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) is already in a preparatory state to host at least three national debates, with representatives of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP).
The report also stated that both parties have agreed in principle to their participation. However, discussions are currently ongoing to ascertain the number, subject areas and formats of those debates.
The newspaper quotes JDC chairman Gary Allen as saying, “We have not gotten to the stage where we have a signing off on a written commitment, and we have not yet gotten to the stage where we flesh out issues [like] the number of debates, the timing of debates and the format that will be used, but we have had an agreement in principle.”
In addition, the Observer also states that the JDC was the organization responsible for planning and holding the general elections debates in 2002 and 2007, through a partnership with the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce and the Media Association of Jamaica.
The JDC is, however, looking to make a few changes to how past debates were held. Those changes range from format change, focusing on local government issues and reform and focusing on how to achieve accelerated economic growth, rather than repetition of statistical growth rates over years.
The JDC also highlighted the importance of debates, since they said that their polls illustrated not only that over 60% of viewers tuned in to watch the debates but that more than 50% stated that the debates influence which party they voted for while, 24.8 persons said that the debates influenced their change to which party they would have voted for at those elections.